Chap. VII Of the Bagnio’s of Zeuxippus and Its Statues
THESE Bagnio’s were so call’d, as Cedrinus relates, because they were built in a Place, where formerly had stood the Temple of Jupiter Zeuxippus. This is said of them by Eusebius, who writes, That there are some of Opinion, that the fine Bathing-place at Constantinople took its Name from the famous Painter Zeuxes, whose Pieces adorn’d it. I collect that it stood near the Church of St. Sophia, not only from the Treatise of the ancient Description of the City, which places them both in the same Ward, but also from the Fire which happen’d in the Reign of Justinian, and burnt down, as Procopius observes, the Church of St. Sophia, and the adjacent Buildings, as the Bagnio of Zeuxippus, and the House of Entrance before the Palace; and Zonaras writes, that Severus the Emperor join’d it to the Hippodrom, and built it on the same Spot of Ground, where formerly had stood the Temple of Jupiter. Leontius, a more ancient and judicious Historian, does not join it to the Hippodrom, but makes it to stand near it, as appears by his Verses inscrib’d over a Door of a House, situate between the Zeuxippum and the Hippodrom.
An Inscription of Leontius upon a House call’d the Zeuxippum and the Hippodrom.
Between Zeuxippus’ cool refreshing Baths,
And the fam’d Hippodrom’s swift Course I stand.
Let the Spectator, when he baths himself,
Or sees the struggling Steed panting for Breath,
Pay a kind Visit, to enhanse his Pleasures;
He’ll find a hearty Wellcome at my Table.
Or if more manly Sports his Mind affects,
Practise the rough Diversions of the Stadia.
Cedrinus relates, that in this Bagnio there was a pleasant Variety of Prospects of surprizing Art, both in Marble and Stone-work, in Statues of Brass, and Figures of Persons of Antiquity, who seem’d to want nothing but a Soul to animate and enliven them. Among these celebrated Pieces of the most exquisite Workmanship, was the Statue of old Homer, in a thoughtful Posture, just as he was, his Hands folded in his Breast, his Beard carelessly hanging down, his Hair very thin before, his Face wrinkled with Age, and the Cares of the World; his Nose well proportion’d, his Eyes fix’d in their Sockets, as is usual with blind Persons, which he was generally look’d upon to be. Over his close Coat hung a loose Garment, and under his Feet, upon the Pedestal of the Pillar, was a Bridle in Brass. This Place was also beautify’d with the brazen Statues of all those renown’d Personages who had been famous for Wisdom, Poetry, Oratory or Courage, throughout the World, but were all destroy’d by Fire. Among these were the Statues of Deiphobus, Æschines, Demosthenes, Aristotle, Euripides, Hesiod, Theocritus, Simonides, Anaximenes, Calchas, Pyrrhus, Amymone; of Sappho, Apollo, Venus, Chrysa, Julius Cæsar, Plato, Hermaphroditus, Herinna, Terpander, Pericles, Pythagoras, Stesichorus, Democritus; of Hercules, Aurora, Æneas, Creusa, Helenus, Andromachus, Menelaus, Helena, Ulysses, Hecuba, Cassandra, Polyxena, Ajax, Paris, and his Oenone; of Milo, Dares and Entellus, Charidemus, Melampus, Panthous, Demogeron, Isocrates, Amphiaraus, Sarpedon, Achilles, Mercury, Apuleius, Diana, Pherecydes, Heraclitus, Cratinus, Menander, Amphitryon, Thucydides, Herodotus, Pindar, Xenophon, Alcmæon, Pompey and Virgil. There were also many other Statues which have been describ’d in Verse by Christodorus a Poet of Thebes, or, as others report, a Native of Coptos in Ægypt, which, were it not a Work of Prolixity, I would explain to the Reader. There stood near the Bagnio call’d Zeuxippum, a small Bath, taken Notice of by Leontius in the following Lines:
Let not thy stately Walls, O proud Zeuxippum,
Resent the Meanness of this little Bath.
In Heaven’s high Tower, near the Constellation
Of Ursa Major shines the Polar Star.
There is nothing of the Zeuxippum remaining at present, nor of many other fine Bagnio’s, although we have many Inscriptions relating to them; as of that famous one celebrated by Agathius, in which Venus is said to have bathed her self; also of another call’d Didymum, in which both Sexes used to wash, describ’d in Verse by Paulus Silentiarius, and a third made memorable by an Inscription of the learned Leontius. Besides these, there was another named Cupido, describ’d by the ingenious Marianus; yet are all of them either entirely ruin’d, or so defaced by the Mahometans, that you cannot discover who built them, or to whom they belong’d.